Sukhothai

Sukhothai, Thailand (2006)

The airport at Sukhothai is extremely small and personable, with only about 40 people present at any given time. We arrived in our little bungalow after waking up at 5am for our early flight, took a nap for a couple hours and woke up to the screeching sounds of lightning strikes as a tropical storm hit Thailand. The storm soon passed and we joined a couple of other tourists for a 2-hour mountain bike ride around the town where kids around every corner excitedly screeched, “Hello!”

The next morning we took a Thai cooking class. First, we walked through the market learning about the spices, chilies and other ingredients in Thai cuisine. We settled on four dishes with a range of difficulty: pad se ew, spring rolls, pad thai, and yellow curry. We also learned how to make coconut rice and the green and red curries. Everything turned out really well and we shared our abundant feast with some fellow tourists and the staff. After lunch, we headed to Old Sukhothai, which is where all the historic temples and monuments reside. The park was very nice and the highlight was the well-groomed grounds rather than the temples, especially after having already seen the elaborate Buddhas around the Grand Palace and the unbeatable temples at Angkor. We returned to our guest house, ate some of our leftovers for dinner, and relaxed.

We returned to Bangkok the next day, explored the electric markets of Chinatown and got some good food at our favorite MBK food area near our hotel. We woke up early the next morning to head to Bangkok International Airport, where Carmel and I went our separate ways to our respective countries (she across the Pacific, and me across Euroasia). Our flights left just hours before a military coup took over Thailand and the nation was gripped with political chaos.